Reading Tricksters Choice
by Black160
Summary: The Gods are at it again this time to change the future. Better summary inside...
1. Chapter 1

_I've wanted to do one of these for so long but there are so many of them of almost all of my favorite books but then I look and I couldn't find one for these books so here is my version of a Reading The Book FanFiction I hope you people like it I've worked hard on it._

_I Am A Seven-Teen Year Old Girl **NOT** Tamora Pierce. I am writing this for fun and the enjoyment of you people I am not making any profit on this. It is called a FANFICTION because I am a FAN._

Chapter one

God's and Their Tricks

Alianne of Pirate's Swoop, known to her friends and family as Aly and known to the people of the Copper Isles as Aly Homewood ex-slave and spy master to the raka rebellion, sat at her desk going over reports. She sighed, leaning back in her chair and looked over the room once more. Having arrived just days here she was still settling in to the life in the capital. It was when someone knocked on the door when it happened. The room filled with white light and Aly was falling.

She landed, much softer than she should have, in a pavilion house that was bigger then it should have been. Looking up she thought she saw clouds among the ceiling beams. There was jewelry hanging from the walls. Giant pillows were tossed over piles of gaudy rugs. The contents of many dishes had, by the looks of things, been abandoned mere seconds ago by the crows that swarmed the room. It only took her a moment to register all of this but what stuck in the sight, both magical and true, were the other people in the room. In a flash she stood in front of both Sari and Dove a knife in each hand as she went over the rest of the faces.

"Aly?" An all too familiar voice asked and Aly's eyes met her twin brothers.

"Alan." She whispered putting her knives away and then suddenly he was holding her and there was Thom and it was like she had never left.

"Um Aly?" someone called from behind her. Turning she saw that the each of the rebel leaders were standing there alone with the duchess and, as she had seen before, Sarai and Dove and Nawat, looking as distant as ever. Aly mentally groaned all of her secrets all of her hard work to hide her past, to protect her past, gone in one move by the gods. For it had to be a god who had done this because where else other than the Divine Realms were there clouds in side?

'Kyprioth!" she called in her head 'This is your doing I know it. Explain you're self!'

"I can never hide anything from you my dear." The god spoke from behind her. All but Aly, Nawat and her father dropped to their knees at the sight of a god, even those who put their faith in other gods knew it was all ways smart to respect all gods.

"Oh get up he's the one who brought us all here." Aly told them all. Her family slowly got to her feet.

Kyprioth smiled. "Now dear don't get testy with me."

"I'll get as testy with you as I want to. Why did you bring us here?" She snapped.

"First let me introduce my self." He smirked turning to the rest of the room. "I am Kyprioth originals god of the Copper Isles."

"What dose this have to do with us?" Alan asked the god. "I mean we are from Tortall what part do any of us play?"

"Well young Alan your sister here plays a very important part in all of this." Kyprioth told him. "But if you don't care to what she gotten up to since she left I can always send you home."

"No, no I'll stay." He told the god quickly, sitting down so as to make sure everyone knew he wasn't leaving.

"All right so what are we all doing here? Did you bring us here from our lives just to listen to you speak mess up my cover because if that's all I have work, your work, to do." Aly snapped.

"Ah yes thank you for bringing us back to that. I brought you all here because the other trickster gods and I have managed to create two books that tell of the future of my Isles which all of you have a direct or indirect affect on." He told the room. "These book are from the perspective of young Aly here one of the main factors in this plan." Aly glared at him.

"So all of the secrets I know every one will my own thoughts my feelings everyone will know them?" She snapped.

"Aly." Her father called, "this isn't like you."

"Da, how would you feel if everyone knew what you thought or felt? What if when you first found out who mother was and she knew all your thoughts?"

George flushed slightly, "I see what you mean." He told his only daughter, he wasn't all too sure that he wanted to know what went on in her head. Could you blame him, what father wants to be inside the little girls mind?

"Mother, would you have wanted all of your thoughts and feelings read aloud when you were a page? Even the ones you hadn't thought or felt yet?" Aly pleaded.

"Wait a moment Aly you told us you mother was a player who left you as a babe." Dove said coming up. "This can't be your mother this is…" she caught sight of the woman violet eyes. "You're the Lioness." She whispered.

"I couldn't very well go telling everyone my mother was the Tortalls king's champion and I wasn't about to say she was dead." Aly said looking at the younger girl watching the raka rebels from the corner of her eye. "I said the only thing that didn't feel like a jinx. I mean she was at war for the Gods sake."

"The war! What's going on there?" Alanna jumped.

"Time in the mortal has stopped nothing can happen until you are all sent back." Kyprioth told them.

"I say we read them." Sarai told the group. "I mean if they are about our future they will stop unneeded deaths." As if that settled everything people found seats around the room.

"Fine if it's from my point of view can I read first?" Aly asked.

"Of course but if you skip something I'll know." The god told her giving her one of the two books he suddenly held.

"'Trickster's Choice' Joy…" She started sitting down.

_So this is my knew story tell me what you think please…_


	2. Chapter 2

In a time of fear the One Who I Promised

will come to the raka, bearing glory in her

train and justice in her hand. She will restore

the god to his proper temple and his children

to her right hand. She will be twice royal, wise

and beloved, a living emblem of truth to her

people. She will be attended by a wise one, the 

cunning one, the strong one, the warrior, and

the crows. She will give home to all, and the 

kudarung will fly in her honor.

-From the Kyprish Prophecy

written in the year 200 H.E.

* * *

><p><strong><span>Chapter two<span>**

**1. Parents**

"I'm skipping the history lesson in here I hope you don't mind." Aly told them settling more into her seat between her brothers, at their insistence.

"Just read Aly." Dove told her.

"'**Chapter 1 Parents. March 27- April 21, 462 H.E.**

**Pirate's Swoop, Tortall, on the coast of the Emerald Ocean.'"**

"I thought this was about the Isles. Why are we reading about Tortall?" Ochobu growled.

"It's probably how Aly came to be a slave." Dove said her voice quiet. Aly nodded and went back to reading still not happy that this was happening.

"'**George Cooper, Baron of Pirate's Swoop, second in command of his-'"**

"That's why you know as much as you do, you were born a spy." Ulasim said finally understanding that mystery. Aly just kept reading.

"'**-realm's spies, put his documents aside and surveyed his only daughter as she paused by his study door…'" **

"This is when you came home from Corus." George, who had looked up at the mention of his position, pointed out unnecessarily.

"'**Alianne- known as Aly to her family and friends- posed there, arms raised in a Players dramatic flourish.' **Oh the good days." She muttered. **"'It seemed that she had enjoyed her month's stay with her Corus relatives.**

"**Dear Father, I rejoice to return from a sojourn in our gracious capital," she proclaimed in an overly elegant voice. "I yearn to be clasped to your bosom again.'" **

Everyone chuckled at Alys attitude. She had changed in the time she had spent in service to the trickster.

"'**For the most part she looked like his Aly. She wore a neat green wool grown, looser than fashion required because, like he da, she carried weapons on her person.'"**

"Of course she did." Chenaol sighed that was why the girl was so good with knives; she had grown up with them. The girl in question shoot a grin at the chef knowing what she had to be thinking.

"'**A gold chain belt supported her knife and purse. Her hazel eyes contained more green than George's own, and they were set wide under straight brown brows. Her nose was small and delicate, more her mothers than his. She'd put a touch of color on her mouth to accent its width and full lower lip. But her hair…**

**George blinked. For some reason, his child wore an old-fashioned wimple and veil. The plain white linen covered her neck and hair completely.'" **Aly ran a hand through her short hair. She missed the length it used to be.

"'**He raised an eyebrow. "Do you plan to join the Players, than?" he asked mildly. "Take up dancing or some such thing?"**

**Aly dropped her pretence and removed her veil, the embroidered cloth band that held it in place, and her wimple. Her hair, once revealed, was not its normal shade of reddish blond, but a deep, pure sapphire blue.'" **

"You hair was blue!" Sarai asked. Then turning to her step-mother, "Can I-"

"No." Winnamine told her firmly. Aly couldn't help but laugh as Sarai pouted.

"It wouldn't work in your hair any way it's to dark." Dove pointed out.

"'**George looked at her. His mouth twitched.**

"**I know," she said, shamefaced. "Forest green and blue go ill together." She smoothed her gown.**

**George couldn't help it. He roared with laughter.'"**

As he did again this time with everyone else in the room. Even Aly and her mother laughed.

**"'Aly struggled with herself, and lost, to grin in reply.**

**"What, Da?" she asked. "Apart from the colors, aren't I in the very latest fashion?"**

**George wiped his eyes on his sleeve. After a few gasps he managed to say, "_What_ have you done to yourself girl"**

**Aly touched the gleaming falls of her hair. "But Da," she said, voice and lowwer lip quivering in mock hurt, "it's all the style at the university!" She resumed her lofty manner. "I proclaim the shallowness of the world and of fashion. I scorn those who sway before each breeze of taste that dictates what is stylish in ones dress, or face, or hair. I scoff at the hollowness of life."**

"You didn't really think he would buy that did you?" Alan asked.

"Of course not brother dearest. It was an act" Aly told him with a look.

**"'George still chuckled, shaking his head.**

**"Well, Da, that's what the students say." She plopped herself into a chair and stretched her legs out to show off her shoes, brown leather stamped with gold vines. "_These_ look nice."**

**"They're lovely," he told her with a smile. "Which 'they' is it that proclaim the hollowness of the world?" **

**Aly flapped a hand in dismissal. "University students. Da, it's the silliest thing. one of the student mages brewed up a hair treatment. It's supposed to make your hair shiny and easy to comb, except it has this wee side effect. And of course the students all decided that blue hair makes a grand statment."**

"And you just jumped on the wagon." Alanna criticized her daughter.

"It was just a bit of fun Mama." Aly told her, ducking behind the book.

**"'She lifted up a sapphire lock and admired it.**

**"So I see." George thought of his oldest son, one of those very university students. "Don't tell me our Thom's gone blue."'"**

"Really father? I would never." Thom said shocked.

**"'Now it was Aly's turn to raise a mocking eyebrow at her father. "Do you think he even notices blue-haired people ore about? Since thy started bringing in the magical devices from Scanra, he's done nothing but take notes for the mages who study how they're made. The only reaction I got from _him _was 'Ma better not see you like that.' I had to remind him Mother's safely in the north waiting for the snows to melt so she can chop up more Scanrans."'"**

"You seem very cool about the fact that I'm risking my life at war. Safely in the north, there is no such thing." Alanna said. Aly went pale.

"That's not what I meant Mama. I was just so confident that you are so good a knight that you couldn't be killed." She told her before reading again.

**"'Aly had left a pair of saddlebags by the door. Now she fetched them and put them on a long table beside George's desk. "The latest documents from Grandda. He says to tell you no, you can't go north, you're still needed to watch the coast. Raiding season will begin soon."**

**"He read my mind," George said crossly.'"**

"If you already knew why did you ask?" Sara asked him.

"I had to try." Was all he said.

**""That cursed war's going into it's second year, your mother's in the middle of it, or will be once the fighting warms up, and I stay here, buried under paper." He indicated his heaped desktop with a wave of a big hand and glared at the saddlebags. "I've not seen her in a year, for pity's sake."**

"You must love your country and your king very much to willingly do that." The Duchess commented to Alanna.

"I pretended to be a man for eight years to be able to serve my King that alone should tell you how much I care for the realm." Alanna said.

**"Grandda say he's got an assistant trained for you," Aly replied. "She'll be here in a month or so. He _is _right. It's no good holding Scanra off in the north if Carthak or Tusaine or the Copper Isles try nipping up bits of the south."**

**"Don't teach your gran to make butter," George advised her drily. "I learned that lesson before you were born." He knew Aly was right; he even knew that what he did was necessary. He just missed his wife. They hadn't been separated for such a long stretch in their twenty- three years of marriage. "And an assistant in a month does me no good now."**

**Aly gave him her most charming smile. "Oh, but Da, now you've got me," she said as she gathered a wad of documents, "Grandda wanted me to take the job as it was."**

**"I thought he might," George murmured, watching as she leafed through the papers she held.**

**"I told him the same thing I did you," replied Aly, setting documents in stacks on the long table. "I love code breaking and knowing all the tittle-tattle, but I'd go half made having to do it all the time. I asked him if I could spy instead…"**

**"I said no," George said flatly, hiding his alarm. The thought of his only daughter living in the maze of dangers that was ordinary spy work, with torture and death to endure if she were caught, made his stand on end.**

"That sort of ironic." Chenaol said. "You turn down the work of a spy masters assistant just to become a spy master." The young people in the room laugh while Aly's parents hid their worry.

**'"So did Grandda." Aly informed him. "I _can_ take care of myself."**

**"It's not the life we want for our only girl," George replied. "My agents are used to living crooked—you're not. And whilst I know, none better, that you can look after yourself, it's those other folk who worry me, the ones whose business it is to sniff out spies." To change the subject he asked, "What of young what's-his-name? The one you wrote was squiring you about in Corus?"**

**Aly rolled her eyes as she sorted documents into stacks. "He bored me, Da. They all do, in time. None of them ever measures up to you, or Grandda, or Uncle Numy"-her childhood nickname for her adoptive uncle, Numair, the realm's most powerful mage-"or Uncle Raoul, or Uncle Gary." She shrugged. "It's as if all the interesting men were born in your generation."'**

"I agree." Dove said as Sarai said "I disagree." The two sisters glared at each other as their step-mother and Chenaol hid smiles.

**"'She scooped up another pile of documents from the desk. Soon she had the various reports, letters, messages, and coded coils of knotted string in four heaps: decode, important, not as important, and file. "So you can forget what's-his-name. Marriage is for noblewomen with nothing else to do."**

"Not true." The Duchess protested. "Marriage give you plenty to do."

**"Marriage gives a woman plenty to do, particularly the noble ones," George said. "Keeping your lands in order, supervising the servant, using your men-at-arms to defend the place when your lords away, working up your stock of medicines, making sure your folk are fed and clothed-it's important work and it's hard."**

"Well said dear." Alanna told her husband.

**"Well, that lets _that_ straight out," she told him, her eyes dancing wickedly. "I've decided that my work is to having fun. Somebody needs to do it."**

**George sighed. He knew this mood. Aly would never listen to anyone now. He would have to have a serious conversation at another time. She was sixteen, a woman grown, and she had yet to find her place in the world.**

**"**I think she has found a place now." Alanna whispered in her husbands ear.

**Aly rested her hip on George's desk. "Be reasonable, Da," she advised, smiling. "Just think. My da and grandda are spymasters, my mother the Kings Champion. Then I've an adopted aunt who's a mage _and _half a goddess, and an adopted uncle who's a mage as powerful as she is. My godsfathers are the king and his youngest advisor; my godsmothers' are the queen and the lady who governs her affairs. You've got Thom for your mage, Alan for your knight"-she named her oldest brother and her twin who had entered page training three years before-"and me for fun. I'm_ surrounded _by bustling folk. You need me to do the relaxing for you."**

"I love you logic Aly." Sarai told her with a grin.

**Despite her claim to studying the art of relaxation, Aly had sorted all of the documents on her father's desk. She set the important pile in front of him and carried messages to be decoded to the desk she used when she helped George. There she set to work on reports coded in the form of assorted knots in wads of string. Her long, skilled fingers sorted out groups and positions of knots in each message web. They were maps of particular territories and areas where trouble of some kind unfolded. The complexity of the knot told Aly just how bad the problem was. The knots' colors matched the sources of the trouble: Tortallans, foreigners, or immortals-the creatures of myth and legend who lived among them free of disease and old age. Most immortals were peaceful neighbors who didn't seek fights, since they could be killed by accident, magic, and weapons, but some were none too friendly.**

"Kudarung are very freindly" Dove said mostly to her self. "Exspecaly the miny ones."  
>"That is unless you are a crow." Junai said with a smile at Nawat.<p>

**George watched Aly with pride. She'd had an aptitude for codes and translation since she was small, regarding them as games she wanted to win. She had treated the arts of the lock pick, the investigator, the pickpocket, the lip reader, the tracker, and the knife wielder in the same way, stubbornly working until she knew them as well as George himself. She was just as determined a student of the languages and history of the realm's neighbors. How could someone who liked to win as much as she did lack ambition? His own ambition had driven him to become the king of the capital's thieves at the age of seventeen. Her mother's will had made her the first female knight in over on hundred years, as well as the Kings Champion, who wielded the Crown's authority when neither king nor queen was present. And yet Aly drifted, seeing this boy and that, helping her father, and arguing with her mother, who wanted her daughter to make something of her life. Aly seemed not to care a whit that girls her age were having babies, keeping shops, fighting in the war, and protecting the realm.**

"I care Da, I just didn't want that to be me." She told him.

**Perhaps I _should_ let her work, George thought, then hurriedly dismissed the idea. She was his only daughter. He would never let her risk her neck alone in the field. It was bad enough that he'd taken her to some deadly meetings in earlier years, meetings where they'd had to fight their way out. If she'd asked to try the warrior life as a knight, one of the Queen's Riders, or one of the battle-ready ladies-in-waiting who served Queen Thayet, he would have found it impossible to refuse. His wife and Aly's adoptive aunts would have had many things to say to him then and none would be a blessing.**

"To true." Alanna said.

**But she wanted to be a spy in the field. That he could and did refuse. He'd lost too many agents over the years. He was determined that none of them be his Aly.**

"When you look at it that way he does have a point." Winnamine pointed out.

**He looked up, realizing that she had given him a weapon in her pursuit of fun. "What would you have done, mistress," he asked sternly, "if you _were_ a spy and I needed you to go out in the field, with that head of hair acting as a beacon?"**

**Aly propped her chin on her hand. "It comes out in three washing, first of all," she informed him. "Second, if I was in Corus or Port Caynn, it would make no mind. The apprentices and shopkeepers' young there pick up university fashions straightaway. Any other big city, I could just say it's the newest style in Corus. Or I'd say that they'd remember the hair and never the face under it, just like _you _taught me." George winced. Aly pressed on, "If none of that eased your flutterings, Da, I'd say that's what razors and wigs are for." She brightened. "I'll wash it out right now it you've a field assignment for me."**

"You walked into that one." Thom told his father.

**George got to his feet. "Never mind. Leave your poor hair alone. It's near suppertime."**

**When Aly stood, he came over to put an arm around her shoulders. At five feet six inches, she fitted just under her tall father's chin. George kissed the top of her very blue head. "I'm glad you're home, Aly."**

**She smiled up at him, all artifice and playacting set aside. "It's always good to see you, Da."**

**That night they ate with Maude, the Swoop's aging housekeeper and Aly's former nursemaid. Maude clucked over her hair, as Aly had known she would. She loved making Maude cluck. Then she would remind the old woman how much she had changed from the Maude who had once disguised her young mistress Alanna as a boy and sent her off to become a lady knight. Maude always got flustered by that. Alanna was now a legend and a great lady of the realm. Maude could say it was fate that had made her open-minded back then, but she knew she was being inconsistent when she said it.**

**Aly liked to tease her nursemaid, not to mention everyone else. Her father knew her tricks and enjoyed catching her at them, which was fine. She knew most of his, too, because he'd taught them to her himself. She disconcerted most people, from the many boys who came calling once they'd noticed her mischievous eyes, ruddy gold hair, and neat figure to the hardened criminals who carried information to her father. She could even make her brothers yelp like puppies if she worked at it. Her twin, Alan, was particularly vulnerable, since she knew his mind nearly as well as her own.**

"You are a cruel child." Fesgao told her.

**The only person she left alone was her mother. Lady Alanna of Pirate's Swoop and Olau, King's Champion and lady knight, known throughout the Eastern and Southern Land as the Lioness, did not startle well. She had a temper and her own particular way of doing things. Alanna showed a sense of humor only around her husband. Aly knew her mother loved her two sons and lone daughter, but she was seldom home. She was forever being summoned to some crisis or other, leaving her children to be raised by her husband and Maude.**

"Thats hardly her fault." Alan protested.  
>"I know that." Aly sighed.<p>

**Not that her children needed any more raising. Aly was sixteen, almost an adult and ready for adult work, as people were forever reminding her. Aly sometimes felt that everyone in her world had more exciting things to do than she did. She hadn't seen her mother, Aunt Diane, or Uncle Numair since the Scanran war began a year before. In the last month while Aly had been in the capital, her grandparents were constantly advising the king and queen, so much that she couldn't impose on their hospitality any longer. Her brother Thom, two years older, thought mostly of his studies. Her twin, Alan, who'd begun his page training three years late, was kept busy by the training master. She had seen him twice during her visit, and only for brief periods of time. She had felt left out, even as she had understood that for the time being Alan belonged to his training master more that he did even to his twin sister. Rather than distract him from his training, she left him alone. Alan was like a cat: he would return to her when he was ready and not a moment sooner.**

"Sorry sis." Her brothers called to her.  
>"Its fine guys I understand."<p>

**All of the young men she had not flirted with and discarded were as busy as her brothers were. They prepared to march north when the mountain passes opened, as they would any day, or else they had left to guard the realm's other borders. Nome of her family would allow Aly within coughing distance of the war. So back home Aly had gone, feeling restless and in the way. At least Da would use her for paperwork, which was _something._**

Alanna couldn't help but remember the battle of Drell river with Tusain and how she had to do something useful. Looks like Aly took after her mother in that way.

**Sometimes she thought she might scream with boredom. If only Da would let her spy! As she decoded reports and summed them up for him, she tried to work out a plan to change his mind.**

**On Aly's third day home more repots arrived. One of them was sealed in crimson, for immediate review. She deciphered it: the code was one of many she had memorized, so she required no book to translate it. Once done, she read what she had written and whistled.**

"Now that is just unlady like." Nurtin sniffed. Aly chukled as she read the next line.

**George looked up. He sat at his desk, reading letters from Tyra. "Somebody would tell you that's unladylike," he pointed out. "Not your dear old common-born Da, for certain."**

**"No, not my dear old common born Da," she replied, smiling at him. "But this is worth whistling over. Somehow our man Landfall's made it to Port Caynn. He's hiding out there, with important messages for you."**

**George's brows snapped together. "Landfall's supposed to be in Hamrkeng, keeping an eye on King Maggot," he replied slowly, using the Tortallan nickname for Scanra's King Maggur.**

"Maggots aint good eating." Nawat said makeing a face that made Alan go green when he saw that he was serious.

**Aly reread the message, noting the apparently insignificant marks that marked it as coming from one of their agents, not a forgery. "It's Landfall, Da," she said. "I taught him this code myself, before we got him into Maggur's capital four years back. He kept saying it was a hard day for the realm when a little girl was teaching code."**

"You were the best teacher then and still are to this day." George said, pride plain in his voice.

**George thought it over, rubbing his head. "Landfall. Either he was found out and escaped in time, or…" **

**Aly finished the sentence for him. "Or what he has is so important he could only carry it himself. Maybe both. He must have come down by ship."**

**George got to his feet. "Well, I'd best see what it's about." Landfall was one of a handful of agents smuggled into Scanra in the years before the war. He was vital enough that he reported only to Aly's grandfather Myles or to George. "Be a good lass and handle these papers for me? I shouldn't be more than a day or two-I'll fetch him back here. Have Maude get one of the hidden bed chambers ready."**

**Aly nodded. "You'll get muddy, ridding to Port Caynn now," she pointed out.**

**George kissed her forehead. It'll do me good to get out in the field, even if it means getting some field on me. I'm that restless."**

**Aly waved goodbye from the castle walls as her father rode out of Pirates Swoop, two men-at-arms at his back. The ride _would _do him good. She only wish he could go all the way to her mother's post and Frasrlund in the far north, where he clearly longed to be.**

**Aly returned to his office in a gloomy mood. Would she ever find someone to love as much as her parents loved each other? She would miss such a partner dreadfully if they were separated, she supposed, just as her parents did. At least she would have someone to talk to, some one clever who didn't' gawp at her and ask her what she meant or, worse, be shocked by her. It wasn't much fun when the only people who could keep up with her were either related or at least ten years older than she was.**

**The day after her father's departure Aly heard the horn calls that signaled the arrival of a friendly ship in the cove. Normally she would have run to the castle's observation platform to see who the new arrivals were, but she was in the middle of a particularly difficult bit of translation: code entered as pinholes in a bound book. If she was not careful, she would flatten the delicate marks, ending up with gibberish instead on a message. She stayed at the task until she heard hooves in the inner courtyard. Gently she set the book aside and went into the main hall, then out through the open front door.**

**Whatever she had expected, the scene in the inner courtyard was not it. Hostlers gently led her mother's warhorse, Darkmoon, towards the stable. The big gelding limped, favoring his left hind leg. Aly eyed the rest of the arrivals. Ten Swoop armsmen who had gone north with her mother the year before helped the servants to unload their packhorses before taking them to the stable. The horses looked thin and salt-flecked, as if they'd been at sea. The men-at-arms looked much the same. So did Aly's mother.**

**Alanna of Pirate's Swoop and Barony Olau, King's Champion, watched Darkmoon as he was led away. The Lioness wore loose, salt-stained buckskin. There was salt in her copper hair, and she had lost more weight than the men. Aly knew her mother hated ships. She would have been sick throughout the voyage. **

**Aly trotted down the steps and kissed her mother's thin cheek. "What brings you here so unexpectedly?" asked Aly. "Is Darkmoon all right?"**

**Her mother looked up at her: even wearing boots she was slightly shorter than her daughter. Fine lines framed the Lioness's famous purple eyes and her mouth, marks of long weeks in the open air summer and winter. There were a few white strands in her mother's shoulder-length copper hair that Aly could not remember seeing before.**

**"He pulled a tendon," Alanna replied wearily. "Our horse healers did their best with him, but he needs rest. His Majesty gave us a month's leave. Where's your father?"'" **

Aly broke off reading. Lighting flashed in the clouds above and the floor rumbled with thunder. Two giant people now stood side by side in the chamber.

* * *

><p>Hey people. I am so sorry for not writing. I have had a lot on my plate at the moment. I will try to write more. pluse these chapters are about 30 pages long. I will finish typing this first one soon.<p> 


	3. Chapter 3

So I've been meaning to continue this for a while however it seems I left my books at home when I moved in to res at my university so I'll continue this as soon as I can get my hands on the books again probably some time in January or Febuary .


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